South Dakota Earns Second Summit League Sportsmanship Award

ELMHURST, Ill. – South Dakota has been honored by its fellow institutions with the 2016-17 Summit League Sportsmanship Award it was announced Wednesday. It marks the second time that the Coyotes have earned the prestigious award.

The Summit League Sportsmanship Award is given annually to the institution that is judged by its peers to be the best in the league in living up to the ideals of sportsmanship. Areas for evaluation include student-athlete conduct, staff/administrator conduct, coaches' conduct and event management.

Southern Utah owns the league record with five Sportsmanship Awards, followed by Centenary with three. South Dakota joins Fort Wayne, Omaha and South Dakota State each capturing a pair of awards. IUPUI, Kansas City and Valparaiso have each earned the honor once.

Previous Sportsmanship Award Winners

Academic Year

School

1998-99

Kansas City

1999-2000

Southern Utah

2000-01

IUPUI

2001-02

Valparaiso

2002-03

Southern Utah

2003-04

Southern Utah

2004-05

Southern Utah

2005-06

Southern Utah

2006-07

Centenary

2007-08

Centenary

2008-09

South Dakota State

2009-10

Centenary

2010-11

South Dakota State

2011-12

Fort Wayne

2012-13

Omaha

2013-14

Omaha

2014-15

Fort Wayne

2015-16

South Dakota

2016-17

South Dakota

ABOUT THE SUMMIT LEAGUE Celebrating its 35th season of Division I athletics, The Summit League offers 19 championship sports and has a combined enrollment of over 120,000 at nine institutions, including four located in top 60 U.S. metro populations and two land-grant universities. Member institutions include: Denver (University of Denver), Fort Wayne (Indiana University-Purdue University-Fort Wayne), IUPUI (Indiana University-Purdue University-Indianapolis), North Dakota State University, Omaha (University of Nebraska Omaha), Oral Roberts University, the University of South Dakota, South Dakota State University and Western Illinois University. Previously known as the Mid-Continent Conference, The Summit League rebranded in 2007 and has since produced eight NCAA Champions along with over 80 Academic All-Americans, 75 All-America selections and numerous former student-athletes competing at the highest professional level. For more information about the league, visit www.thesummitleague.org website, follow The Summit League on Twitter @thesummitleague and watch the weekly "Inside The Summit League" show at www.thesummitleague.org/itsl.